Stanford University's band, an irreverent group of musicians and entertainers known for marching to the beat of its own proverbial drum, has predictably been chastised once again by university officials, but this time the group's double secret probation has become a super public suspension. The Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band will be gone all through the spring semester of 2017, as university officials announced at the end of last week, and reconstituted thereafter under professional rather than student direction. The horror!

Alumni recalling their bright college years were lamenting the news on social media, reminiscing about the band's provocative antics of its long tenure. This January, for example, the group offended Iowa University fans during the Rose Bowl by mocking their opponents as a bunch of farm boys, simulating a corn maze and cow tipping. And back in 2004, during a game against Brigham Young University, they famously performed a polygamist marriage ceremony on the field during halftime. Nice!

In a letter to the management of the band, administrators wrote that a panel found the group had violated an alcohol suspension as well as a travel ban imposed last spring in response to previous debauchery, renting a Tahoe cabin with band funds.

More seriously, in my mind, the band seems to have violated policies on sexual harassment. Claiming that the group hadn't made good on previous pledges to get their act together, the school cited "a total lack of accountability and responsibility in the current organization" calling for "extreme sanctions" and recommending "suspension and loss of recognition as a registered student organization."

Worse still for fans of the band: When it's struck up again it will be under a professional director with veto power over students. "In particular, the reconstituted governance model will include a professional Music Director with significant control over Band membership and operations," the administration wrote. "A model of this sort was in place for more than 30 years, without stifling the Band’s unique character, under the direction of Art Barnes. Our goal will be to recreate a model in which there is collaborative leadership between the Music Director and Band membership, but importantly, in which the Music Director retains final control."

According to a press release from the band, "If, as the University now claims, Band has a 'systemic cultural problem,' it is that it does not fit into the mold that provides the University a lucrative brand, a well-manicured image, and administrative expedience."

At least the Cal band will have plenty of fodder for the next Big Game. The Stanford Daily's editorial board voiced similar, if darker, suspicions about the timing of the announcement, hypothesizing that it could have served as a means of distracting the university, alumni, and the public from the scandal surrounding a lawsuit filed this month that alleges the University allowed a known sexual predator to remain on campus. "Whether the timing of the Band announcement was meant to overshadow the news of the lawsuit or whether the University genuinely believes that Band’s suspension will sanitize its image with regards to the negative press surrounding its sexual assault policies, the decision certainly did not have students in mind," wrote the editorial board in their piece titled "Stanford should not prioritize its image over its students."

Previously: Stanford Band Banned From Road Games For A Year